


'Cause It's Something To Share

by aroacejeanprouvaire



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Marijuana, Non-Binary Bahorel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 11:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3207743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroacejeanprouvaire/pseuds/aroacejeanprouvaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jehan gets high and gives a pretty shaky explanation of metafiction. Grantaire is a little shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Cause It's Something To Share

Jehan giggles as Bahorel blows smoke in his face, then he swats them away and grabs for the joint. He takes a long drag before blowing smoke back at them.

Bahorel just smiles. “Hey, I just didn’t want to waste any.”

Jehan grins and passes the joint down to Grantaire, who’s sitting on the floor, leaning against Bahorel’s legs. “We’ve got plenty.” He points out, before flopping down with his head in Bahorel’s lap. “I was saying something before, wasn’t I?”

Bahorel shrugs.

“Grantaire? I was saying something to you?’

“Mm, something about, um, self… self-reflexes?”

“Oh yes! Self-reflexivity.” Jehan beams. “It’s a metafiction thing and like a, uh, a… a big deal in postmodern literature, yeah.”

Bahorel nods encouragingly; high Jehan is the most fun when Bahorel manages to keep him talking.

Grantaire holds up the joint and Jehan grabs it and takes another drag before continuing. “So, like, you get all this fiction that keeps referring back to itself, like… to its status as fiction. Books and shit being all like ‘hey what up I’m a book’.” He pauses for a second before bursting into a fit of giggles, tugging at Bahorel’s sleeve. “Oh my god, that would be so cute. Imagine a book talking to you.”

Grantaire just snorts, but Bahorel laughs along, managing to wheeze out, “Audiobooks, Jehan, you’re thinking of audiobooks.” Which ends up making Grantaire laugh as well.

Jehan swats at Bahorel. “You’re being obnoxious! And I am not done explaining. Okay, where were we?”

“Talking books.” Grantaire supplies.

That almost has Jehan laughing again but he manages to control it. “Yes, talking books. Actually, that’s right! That’s what it’s like pretty much! Okay, so, Calvino.”

“Calvinism?” Grantaire reaches for the joint again.

“No, Calvino! An Italian author. Italo Calvino. Okay so probably his best known thing is If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller.”

“If on a winter’s night a traveller what?”

“No, shush, that’s the title. And it starts with… no, well, it’s in second person!”

“Which one is that?”

“It’s like if you say… ‘you’.” Bahorel tells him. “If you say ‘you’ then it’s second person.”

“Me?”

Jehan hits Grantaire with a cushion. “No, ‘you’! Like, talking to someone and addressing them as ‘you’. Yeah, so like it starts by telling you that you’re reading the book. Calvino’s like ‘hey, you’re reading my new book, neat’.”

Grantaire considers this for a moment. “That’s weird, man.”

Jehan nods enthusiastically. “Yes! That’s because of… that’s why… that’s the point of being self-reflexive, yeah? Because then the reader is like ‘aw shit I’m reading a book’.”

“I think they already knew they were reading a book? Like, I think readers do that on purpose.”

“No but…” Jehan pauses, gathering his thoughts as best he can before charging on, “But fiction as a genre is built around the idea of making people suspend-disbelief. Getting lost in the story and all that shit so that the story feels like it’s its whole own reality.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“But not with Calvinism?”

“Calvino. Yeah, it’s… postmodern. A postmodern, thing. He keeps reminding the reader that they’re reading fiction. Like, every time you get comfortable reading his book, which is about you reading his book, then he’s all like ‘no, wait, it’s the wrong book!’ and then you go on like a quest to find the right one.”

“I think I’d just read something else.”

“No, Aire. Not you. You in the book. Calvino’s protagonist.”

“Cool.”

“Are you even listening?”

“Yeah. Protagonist.” Grantaire says, taking the joint back.

“Mmm, protagonist. So yeah, postmodernism is about questioning tradition and fucking shit up.”

“Sounds like Bahorel.”

Bahorel grins and Jehan dissolves into giggles again, curling up in Bahorel’s lap and pressing his head against their torso. “Aire, you’re impossible.”

“Mm, maybe because I already know all this shit.” Grantaire says mildly.

“Huh?”

“Postmodernism as a movement didn’t just hang around the lit crowd and then take-off, you know. There’s postmodern art too. Same kind of ideas, just, different medium.”

“Oh, yeah…” Jehan looks crestfallen. “I knew that.”

Bahorel nods. “He did actually know that. He was talking about it the other day.”

“Yeah! See!” Jehan tugs at Grantaire’s shirt until he turns around and laughingly shoves Jehan away. “I knew, Aire, it’s just that I’m…”

“High off your tits?” Grantaire supplies helpfully.

“Yes.” Jehan nods solemnly, and then starts laughing so hard that he tumbles off the couch and onto Grantiare.

**Author's Note:**

> Despite having been in close vicinity to people smoking pot surprisingly often, my actual knowledge of what a pot high is like and all that is pretty limited. I've never actually been around people who were smoking joints but I wanted to have Jehan lying in Bahorel's lap without having to sit up at intervals to smoke from a bong or anything. Hopefully there's nothing too egregiously inaccurate here.
> 
> Also hey to any young'uns reading this: personally I think pot smells disgusting and have never felt any desire to smoke it, but if you want to you should make sure you're doing it with people you can trust and in a safe environment (if you're not feeling good and safe then it's going to make you super anxious, and if you happen to react badly you want to be able to access help really easily).
> 
> Title is from Great Expectations by Elbow.


End file.
